Nassau Champagne Sunset Cruise

[ajagent]

Has anyone done this excursion through Carnival? We are in port overnight so I was looking for something fun for DW and myself. Any thoughts?

[KroozFoolz]

We did this excursion through Royal Caribbean this past May and really enjoyed it. I probably would not have considered it except for a review from DGP1111 several years ago:

One night at home, several weeks prior to the cruise, I decided to check the available shore excursion to see if there was anything new listed I'd consider leaving the ship for while in Nassau. Same ol', same ol'

 

But then I remembered reading from someone online who was on one of the Sensation 'overnights', that they did an evening catamaran, and enjoyed it. So I looked that up and figured I must be looking at the wrong thing, as it was only thirty-nine bucks. :rolleyes: Yeah, right, how good could that be for so cheap?

 

The saying often goes, "You get what you pay for", and I routinely see it quoted here on CruiseCritic. Well, folks, I'm here to tell you that occasionally you get far more than you pay for when cruising. This excursion (in my own opinion) was worth much more . . . and I reacted to that feeling later.

 

While waiting for all the passengers to arrive on the pier next to our ship, it was interesting to watch the Carnival Destiny passengers who were late coming back for their sailaway. Some walked slowly while cursing those onboard who were yelling to them, some ran in gasping breaths, and the final couple arrived in a golf cart being driven at warp speed. The ramp had already been pulled in, with doors closing, but they put the ramp back out. Whew, lucky them!

 

Anyway . . . once that entertainment was completed, it was time for us to head to our "Champagne Sunset Catamaran" experience. Arrived at the boat to find one couple who was miffed that they'd already been there waiting for us to arrive. They'd confused the words Pier and Dock. She was especially unhappy, and let that be known. We'd all signed the liability waiver, and now that couple was being asked to sign the sheet before boarding. As they were grumbling and signing, as few up us began to board. I decided I'd sit in the back, despite having a lesser view, because it looked more comfortable. I'd not yet gotten my nest made before the unhappy couple came onboard and headed inside to the covered area . . . with the one problem that she'd not noticed there was an approximately 12-inch piece of metal to step over. It all happened so fast that she didn't have time to put her arms out. She splattered herself on the floor with such force that I wondered about the structure of this thing still being seaworthy. Wow!! (to use my word from the embarkation day). I was absolutely certain that we were in for a long delay while they'd have to call for medics, and do tons of paperwork. But her husband helped her up and got her seated inside. She looked beyond dazed and confused. I quicky headed to the front of the vessel, so that I'd not be asked if I saw anything or needed to fill out witness documents. Thank goodness they had her sign the clipboard before boarding.

 

Surprisingly, we were only a few minutes delayed, and off we went. The crew was introduced, and our two champagne coupons were distributed. Most hurried to the bar for their first (plastic) glass. From the get-go it seemed like this was going to be a very basic sail into the harbor, but the weather was great and I didn't care. Some of us passengers were getting chatty, which added to the enjoyment, and then we got to watch the crew pull the sails.

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A while later we went under the bridge which leads to Paradise Island & Atlantis. Enjoyed the view.

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We continued on to the end of Paradise Island, but instead of doing a u-turn and reversing our path, we headed down and around the other side. Cool!! We'd get to see Atlantis Resort from the opposite side of the normal view. . . and what a view it was. Also saw a wedding taking place along the beach and we got to cheer for the bride/groom and their guests. They waved back in appreciation.

 

One poor young man (a newlywed) was obviously not accepting the current rocking of the vessel very well, and started to get a 'look'. I knew that look and moved away in advance. New wifey got to see a different side of hubby. :eek: Eww. Yet another gentleman was coming back out with a drink in each hand when we hit a wave, and those nearby (especially his sweet wife) thought he was heading to sea, but with his legs dangling over the side, his rumpus caught the bottom rail and he was stopped. The crew got rags to clean his beverage mess from all around the area. He was not injured, thank goodness.

 

I know we've all seen that one lighthouse where the ships enter to dock at Nassau, but I've never been that close to it. Of course I grabbed my camera again.

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A full sunset (thus the excursion name) had begun and the red and orange tones were awesome. As we were ending our tour, a little over two hours from the start, I took some great photos of the ship from a different angle, but it was the view from the catamaran as we were being roped to the dock that caused me to audibly gasp.

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This had been a special thing for me, and easily worth (for me) more than the thirty-nine bucks spent . . . I made up the difference with a very nice gratuity into the bucket. What a way to end a day in a port stop that I'd totally ignored earlier in the day. Thanks, again, to the crew of the SeaHorse III.

 

We have been back to Nassau several times since his review but this past May was the first time we stayed in port late enough to have this excursion available to us. I was so glad we could finally do this excursion!

It was a bit disappointing that we did not do a full circle of Paradise Island as DGP1111 had experienced and I had hoped for but it was still a very nice excursion.

 

Here is the link to our pictures:

http://travel.webshots.com/album/583061235gxfYco

[ajagent]

Thanks ALOT!!! I think I am going to book it!!!

[Elliott0821]

Has anyone done this excursion through Carnival? We are in port overnight so I was looking for something fun for DW and myself. Any thoughts?

 

 

My DH and I did this for our honeymoon in 2010. We both really enjoyed it and were hoping to do it again this year when we went back but we weren't in port late enough.